Formz Wishlist part 3

[danshaw]

a few more wishes

 

Pick

Hold down key when selecting to open Select By Criteria Palette.

 

Select by Criteria:

A button to set the pick criteria based on the current selection (the individual options are all highlighted and then just each section needs to be switched on if needed).

 

 

Guides

Guides are drawn on an autonomous layer (and this layer can be hidden from the layer list as an option) and can be temporarily switched on or off - an icon next to show axis and show grid in the display tools palette to control on/off and also a keyin, say Alt+ Spacebar to toggle on/ off. 

 

 

Snapping

Some changes to the way snapping works:

 

Explicit Tangent To and Tangent From and Perpendicular To and Perpendicular From options.

 

Say you wanted to draw a line from a point and finishing tangent to the circumference of a circle- from a point anywhere outside the circle there will be 2 tangent points to the circle so method could be:

1. Pick a point  to start line
2. Choose the Tangent To snap (let’s say TT in quick succession to choose the snap as a keyin)
3. Snap anywhere on the circle. The line will automatically snap to the nearest of the tangent points. Pressing the alt key would swap the end point of the line to the other tangent point if required.
4. Click to accept the snap.

 

Say you then wanted to draw a line tangent from the circumference of a circle to any point outside:

1. Choose the Tangent From snap (let’s say TF in quick succession as a keyin ).
2. Click on the circumference of the circle at the desired point and then move the cursor away to rubber band the line from the chosen tangent point. Click to accept the chosen endpoint
3. As an alternative holding down the alt key before choosing the first tangent point means that the tangent point will rubber band around the circumference until the line endpoint is chosen that locks the tangent point in place

 

Perpendicular To and From will operate in a similar fashion. (The current perpendicular snap does jump to the correct point at least) i.e. the Perp From  will allow a point to be chosen on the line and the line will be drawn perpendicular from that point or holding down the alt key will allow the first point to rubberband along the line until the end point is chosen that locks the perp point in place (this alt option would also allow virtual perp points - that is the point would rubber band past the end points of the line along the vector to infinity.

 

Intersection snap to virtual intersections

i.e. snapping to the point where objects would cross if extended

1. choose the intersection virtual snap (iv as keyin say)
2. Pick the first object
3. Pick the second object
4. The point is displayed at the virtual intersection of the 2 objects. Accept to enter point.  If there are 2 intersection points then again the alt key would jump the point to the other option.

 

Snap to Centre

If you have chosen this snap why can’t you then snap at any point on the surface to choose the centre of the face? This is much faster.

 

This is all typical cad snapping stuff.

 

 

Tool Options - Move: Repeat Copy

If the alt key is held down when clicking the mouse to make copies the transformation is applied but the copy is not made - so a row of copies can be made but say the middle few iterations of the copy can be left out by holding alt down at those clicks.

 

Same for the Rotate Tool version

 

 

Tool Options - Place Along Path

Options for the object orientation:

Perpendicular to path start point

Perpendicular at each path point

Perpendicular to path end point

I know you can alter the rotation widget to approximate these rotations- but I would rather have accuracy.

 

Placement method by number of copies but do not place first and last objects.

 

 

Components

For the place on active Layer option for component placement I would like to have a relative hierarchy option. If the original component was on 5 layers say, then if placed in group option a group is created and 5 new layers are created within for the component (layers within follow group name or can be original component layers)

 

Replace component:

A replace all instances option

 

 

In General

Lastly I would like all the tools, wherever possible to be parametric - I can then go back at any time and just all the various parameters to adjust the results - from initial input objects , to attributes propagating throughout etc.

[Tech]

Hi Danshaw, 

 

Thanks for spending the time to write out your wish list.  We are always trying to improve formZ's reliability, stability, performance, and toolset for every update.  We try to compile every suggestion and add/improve various parts of formZ at a time.  A lot of these suggestions/issues are much more involved than it seems.  It may take days to fix/improve/add an issue that seems relatively simple to the end user.  We will take your wish list into great consideration for the future, but please understand that we will not be able to involve every suggestion into the next update, or the update after that, or after that.  Hopefully we can include enough of them to keep you coming back to formZ, though 

[danshaw]

Thank you Tech,

 

I am under no illusion that what I am asking over the extensive 3 part list is easy and quick  to implement, so I can wait   - I have been a Formz user since the early nineties (cannot remember exactly which year) back when it used to be the unofficial sister app to Electric Image, so although I don't post very often I am a longterm user and don't intend to go anywhere  . Nearly all my wishes are just that - I think they would improve the programme no end, but interface speed is really a requirement for the next version (I think you know this though).

 

Cheers

Danny

[Andrew West]

Since this thread deals a bit with snapping I will add my two cents worth.  I used to use snaps a lot in V6 but stopped in V8 for a few reasons.  First is the unpredictability of the new snap.  The second is the inability to snap to the back face of an object when in front view.  This used to be an option.  For some ungodly reason the snap option palette now has Project onto Reference Plane as a default every time you open a project.  This needs to be turned off every time I open a project.  Now if I use snap to point to build a window frame that has layers I create each piece of geometry snapping to points and then I have to go into top view and move each piece into its proper position.  A complete waste of time.  In V6 I could snap points to the back faces of objects  and build it forward toward the camera.  Please bring it back!